RobertB
January 19th, 2008, 05:13 PM
Earnings won't bail out market this time
By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer Sat Jan 19, 6:43 AM ET
NEW YORK - In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of doorways, and January is in turn the doorway of the year. For Wall Street, this first month of 2008 has brought none of the optimism that the myth implies — instead, a disappointing stream of economic and earnings reports has investors dreading what's still to come.
With investors worried that the credit crisis is worsening and that a recession is all but likely, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nearly 10 percent in the first 18 days of 2008. This month is shaping up to be the worst January on record for the well-tracked index since 1970, when blue chips shed 7.65 percent.
And Wall Street analysts warn investors not to expect corporate earnings to bail out stocks. About 60 members of the S&P 500 have reported results, most of them failing to surpass Wall Street projections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_bi_ge/wall___main;_ylt=Aglzgn3ZOJwzdB9KhyqXmi2s0NUE
By JOE BEL BRUNO, AP Business Writer Sat Jan 19, 6:43 AM ET
NEW YORK - In Roman mythology, Janus is the god of doorways, and January is in turn the doorway of the year. For Wall Street, this first month of 2008 has brought none of the optimism that the myth implies — instead, a disappointing stream of economic and earnings reports has investors dreading what's still to come.
With investors worried that the credit crisis is worsening and that a recession is all but likely, the Standard & Poor's 500 index fell nearly 10 percent in the first 18 days of 2008. This month is shaping up to be the worst January on record for the well-tracked index since 1970, when blue chips shed 7.65 percent.
And Wall Street analysts warn investors not to expect corporate earnings to bail out stocks. About 60 members of the S&P 500 have reported results, most of them failing to surpass Wall Street projections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080119/ap_on_bi_ge/wall___main;_ylt=Aglzgn3ZOJwzdB9KhyqXmi2s0NUE